Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 466: Rut Fresh Radio 10/13/2021 - October Optimism

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Ep. 466: Rut Fresh Radio 10/13/2021 - October Optimism · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to Wired to Hunts rut Fresh Radio, bringing you
0:05
Speaker 1: the latest reports from the White Tailed Woods and now
0:08
Speaker 1: your host, Spencer new Hearth. This is Wired Hunt's rout
0:15
Speaker 1: Fresh Radio powered by First Light. I am your host,
0:18
Speaker 1: Spencer new Hearth, and this week we're talking about some
0:21
Speaker 1: October optimism. Welcome to Wired to Hunt's rut Fresh Radio.
0:40
Speaker 1: I am your host, Spencer new Hearth, and this is
0:43
Speaker 1: episode four hundred sixty six. This week again I am
0:47
Speaker 1: joined by Mark Kenyan. Now I know, Mark, you just
0:49
Speaker 1: got home from hunting in the nation's capital and you're
0:52
Speaker 1: gonna have a lot of other content focused on that trip.
0:55
Speaker 1: But for right now, I just want to know what
0:58
Speaker 1: the buck movement was like. So give me an answer
1:01
Speaker 1: on the scale of one to ten and a few
1:02
Speaker 1: details about that trip. Yeah, so, my dear, activity report
1:07
Speaker 1: comes from the Virginia side of the line. We're over
1:09
Speaker 1: in the Virginia, UH side of that region, hunting in
1:14
Speaker 1: the suburbs, and you know, on a one to ten scale,
1:19
Speaker 1: I would give it a five. Probably. Um, we definitely
1:25
Speaker 1: were seeing deer movement. We even saw some buck movement
1:30
Speaker 1: earlier in the day and some spots. Um. But it
1:33
Speaker 1: wasn't on fire. It was most of the movement was
1:37
Speaker 1: that last hour of daylight, first hour in the morning,
1:42
Speaker 1: and um, you know, definitely not any kind of pre
1:46
Speaker 1: rut stuff, just some some very basic bed defeat kind
1:49
Speaker 1: of movement is basically what we saw. And in some
1:52
Speaker 1: areas in the suburbs, these deer move all day because
1:54
Speaker 1: they bed right off the edges of the yards and
1:56
Speaker 1: then hop into a yard and the some acorns some
1:58
Speaker 1: of that stuff. But in gen orl i'd say, kind
2:00
Speaker 1: of average what you'd expect in October stuff. Uh. The
2:04
Speaker 1: big story as far as what these deer were doing,
2:07
Speaker 1: we're eating acorns, eating white oak, white oak acorns. That
2:11
Speaker 1: was everything revolved around that. So that was the That
2:16
Speaker 1: was the trick to trying to find deer was finding
2:18
Speaker 1: a yard that had a white oak or a bunch
2:20
Speaker 1: of white oaks that was dropping acorns and you could
2:22
Speaker 1: just see these deer were just hammering them. Anywhere you
2:25
Speaker 1: found that you were finding some deer or deer signs.
2:28
Speaker 1: So that was that was the story in Northern Virginia
2:31
Speaker 1: this this past week. Um, that's uh, I think that's
2:35
Speaker 1: all I have to say for now because I am
2:36
Speaker 1: going to record a full podcast about the story of
2:39
Speaker 1: the trip with all the details and how it ended
2:41
Speaker 1: and what happened. And I will tease it and say
2:44
Speaker 1: that it was probably the most not probably, it was
2:47
Speaker 1: absolutely the most unique hunt of my life and a
2:51
Speaker 1: wild experience in a lot of ways. So I'll leave
2:55
Speaker 1: it that I like it, looking forward to that other content. Now,
2:59
Speaker 1: I know when you were there, you weren't really blessed
3:02
Speaker 1: with great weather. Maybe it wasn't bad weather either, but
3:04
Speaker 1: you didn't have amazing weather. And that's something that in
3:10
Speaker 1: nineteen most of the nation at some point in the
3:13
Speaker 1: first two weeks of October was blessed with like the
3:16
Speaker 1: perfect cold front, and we saw it both years Mark
3:19
Speaker 1: where there were a whole bunch of bucks that got
3:22
Speaker 1: killed during those stretches. And looks like that's not gonna
3:24
Speaker 1: happen at all in one. But we do have a
3:27
Speaker 1: small series of cold fronts happening across the country at
3:30
Speaker 1: different parts this week, Um, and that might be the
3:33
Speaker 1: best that we get this year for that cold front
3:35
Speaker 1: in the first half of October. Knowing that, Mark and
3:38
Speaker 1: that the small cold fronts are happening, how would that
3:41
Speaker 1: change your mindset hunting in a state where you're getting
3:44
Speaker 1: that dip in temperature coming up. Yeah, he made a
3:47
Speaker 1: great point. I mean, this has been one of the
3:49
Speaker 1: more disappointing years I can remember. As far as October weather.
3:54
Speaker 1: It's it's at least in the areas I've been looking
3:56
Speaker 1: at on the map and on the forecast, and here
3:58
Speaker 1: in Michigan very warm, above average temperatures consistently throughout all
4:04
Speaker 1: of late September and now all the way through mid October.
4:06
Speaker 1: And the long term forecast doesn't look terribly promising. But
4:10
Speaker 1: as you mentioned, there is a little bit of hope. Um,
4:14
Speaker 1: we've got a decent temperature drop coming up this week. Um,
4:18
Speaker 1: And and in some places it's actually happening. It's gonna
4:21
Speaker 1: depend on where you are in the country. Some people
4:23
Speaker 1: are going to hit the day before this podcast comes out,
4:25
Speaker 1: So if you're listening to this on Wednesday when it
4:27
Speaker 1: came out, you might be experiencing it like right now. Um.
4:30
Speaker 1: For other people, there's another little drop coming in the weekend.
4:34
Speaker 1: So there's this like Tuesday Wednesday drop in some rain
4:37
Speaker 1: that's pushing through across the middle of the country, and
4:39
Speaker 1: then another little drop on the weekend. So you know,
4:44
Speaker 1: It's not like the twenty degree temperature drop from six
4:46
Speaker 1: to forty that would just send it screaming and really
4:49
Speaker 1: get people super duper excited. But I think in some
4:52
Speaker 1: places you're seeing that ten twelve degree dip in the
4:56
Speaker 1: highs for the day, and I would look at that
4:59
Speaker 1: as a sweetener as and by that, I mean it's
5:03
Speaker 1: not the kind of thing that's gonna force me to
5:05
Speaker 1: change all my plans and in the cancel basketball practice
5:08
Speaker 1: and canceled date night and say I gotta be out there.
5:10
Speaker 1: This is like what this is the October cold front
5:13
Speaker 1: that's gonna really kick things off and get them all
5:15
Speaker 1: on their feet. Um that sometimes you see, I think
5:19
Speaker 1: this is more of one of those deals where if
5:22
Speaker 1: you are zeroing in on a buck already in mid October,
5:25
Speaker 1: if you've been seeing about this moving place close to
5:28
Speaker 1: daylight on trail camera, or if you've been scouting your
5:30
Speaker 1: way in on some public land and you're getting in
5:32
Speaker 1: on that good sign and you're thinking, man, I just
5:34
Speaker 1: need the right conditions one day and I'm gonna make
5:36
Speaker 1: that final move and pushing a hundred derris closer to
5:39
Speaker 1: that betting area. Um, this might be that little bump
5:42
Speaker 1: that might help UM a little bit. Cooler temperatures like
5:47
Speaker 1: after eight year degree day, a sixty five degree day
5:49
Speaker 1: and some light rain just might be enough to get
5:52
Speaker 1: that big boy to think, you know what, I'm gonna
5:54
Speaker 1: move just a little bit earlier. Today it's feeling good,
5:56
Speaker 1: it's not so hot and uncomfortable. So fifteen minutes before
6:00
Speaker 1: dark he's up on his feet feeding on acorns, while
6:02
Speaker 1: the four previous days maybe he was waiting until fifteen
6:05
Speaker 1: minutes after dark. Um. So so I look at it
6:08
Speaker 1: as just a little sweetener that might make things a
6:11
Speaker 1: little bit better. And if I've been waiting for that
6:13
Speaker 1: moment to give me a little edge, but everything else
6:15
Speaker 1: has lined up pretty well. This is that kind of thing. Uh.
6:19
Speaker 1: But to reiterate, this isn't the kind of deal that
6:21
Speaker 1: I throw away all caution and go crazy. I'm I'm
6:24
Speaker 1: still wanting a bunch of the other pieces of the
6:26
Speaker 1: pie in place before I do something really aggressive. UM.
6:30
Speaker 1: On the flip side, if you're just looking to have,
6:32
Speaker 1: you know, if you have time to go out to hunt,
6:34
Speaker 1: this should make for pretty decent days. I think these
6:36
Speaker 1: are good days to get out there, whether you're hunting private,
6:39
Speaker 1: or public um. It's better than eighty degrees for two
6:42
Speaker 1: weeks straight. I'd rather have these little dips than nothing.
6:45
Speaker 1: So I think it's gonna be interesting. I'm I'm looking
6:48
Speaker 1: at actually a little drop coming in uh here this week.
6:51
Speaker 1: That I wasn't planning on hunting this week because I
6:54
Speaker 1: just have a week here between trips, but I might
6:58
Speaker 1: I might slip out for any evening and just see
7:01
Speaker 1: see what's happening, because you never know, you know, the
7:05
Speaker 1: mid October lull, as we talked about last week, it's
7:07
Speaker 1: it's not so much a lull as it's a change.
7:10
Speaker 1: And I feel confident that I know how these deer change,
7:12
Speaker 1: and that little dip a temperature might just be enough
7:15
Speaker 1: to give me an opportunity. I will tell you. One
7:17
Speaker 1: other thing is that I was I got home from
7:20
Speaker 1: d C last night and I was able to glass
7:23
Speaker 1: one of the spots I hunt just for a little bit.
7:25
Speaker 1: I did a little quick look out there, and I
7:28
Speaker 1: did seem deer moving, you know, half hour I think
7:34
Speaker 1: it was like a half hour, forty five minutes before dark,
7:36
Speaker 1: and I saw a decent number of deer moving around already.
7:38
Speaker 1: And I did see one of the like maybe three
7:41
Speaker 1: year old, maybe older buck. He was actually running around
7:45
Speaker 1: chasing does I. I don't think that's like a rut thing.
7:49
Speaker 1: I think that's just um, you know, he's feeling a
7:52
Speaker 1: little frisky and was excitable. So I'm not reading into that,
7:55
Speaker 1: but it was, you know, he was he was eager
7:58
Speaker 1: and bumping does around and look good out there. So
8:02
Speaker 1: there's there's that He's abut that. I don't think I'm
8:04
Speaker 1: targeting this year, so that doesn't make me want to
8:06
Speaker 1: jump in there, but it was it was nice to
8:08
Speaker 1: see and mark, what if the weather man is wrong?
8:11
Speaker 1: What if this coming weekend, instead of like an eleven
8:14
Speaker 1: degree cold cold front, it's a twenty three degree cold
8:18
Speaker 1: front and we have this big drop in temperature. What
8:20
Speaker 1: are you going to do differently then? So in that case,
8:24
Speaker 1: it's it's all right, this is really good. And it
8:27
Speaker 1: just seems like year after year when we see that
8:30
Speaker 1: really big first cold front of October roll through where
8:32
Speaker 1: you get that twenty plus drop, it just seems to
8:38
Speaker 1: I don't know, rip off the bandit or like release
8:41
Speaker 1: the seal on on something and you do get a
8:44
Speaker 1: special burst of movement. I've just seen it time and
8:47
Speaker 1: time again. So in that case, I would say, Okay,
8:49
Speaker 1: I gotta be out there. You don't want to miss that.
8:52
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that I would always go to the
8:56
Speaker 1: very best tree on the property. That's not the case.
8:58
Speaker 1: Everything else has to be lined up for. But if
9:01
Speaker 1: there's that kind of tempt swing, I'm not missing it.
9:05
Speaker 1: If there's any way around it, I'm not going to
9:07
Speaker 1: miss that. So that's that's the way I would look
9:09
Speaker 1: at the difference between like a eight nine tender good
9:11
Speaker 1: jump or drop and a like degree drop. Um. That's
9:17
Speaker 1: that's my take. Well, for the sake of our listeners,
9:20
Speaker 1: I hope that happens this week on the podcast, we
9:24
Speaker 1: are also joined by Casey Smith from The Element in
9:27
Speaker 1: South Dakota, then John Teeter from white Tail Landscapes in
9:30
Speaker 1: New York, and then in Alabama, we talked to Parker
9:32
Speaker 1: McDonald from Southern Ground Hunting and then we end with
9:36
Speaker 1: Todd Graf from bow Hunting dot Com in Illinois. And
9:39
Speaker 1: the reading materials for this mark that you can find
9:42
Speaker 1: in the description in this episode, which you're going to
9:44
Speaker 1: be relevant to hunters right now, include how to kill
9:48
Speaker 1: a buck Hunting Rubs by Tony Peterson. Tony breaks down
9:52
Speaker 1: which rubs are relevant in which ones aren't, and how
9:54
Speaker 1: to kill a buck on them in October. And then
9:56
Speaker 1: we have the best food sources to deer haunt in
9:59
Speaker 1: October from Tony Hansen. Tony lists three favorite food sources
10:03
Speaker 1: to focus on right now, most of which can be
10:05
Speaker 1: found across the country. And then we have how to
10:08
Speaker 1: kill a nocturnal buck from you Mark Kenyon. Mark helps
10:11
Speaker 1: you scheme for what to do if a target buck
10:14
Speaker 1: is only showing up on trail camera outside of shooting
10:16
Speaker 1: light in October. And then the last one is how
10:19
Speaker 1: to kill a buck at midday in October by Tony Peterson.
10:22
Speaker 1: Tony shares his unique perspective on hunting white tails in October.
10:27
Speaker 1: When the sun is I see you got it all
10:30
Speaker 1: cover there. If you're bucksling move at night, there's ideas
10:33
Speaker 1: if it bars out there in the middle of the day.
10:35
Speaker 1: We got your ideas. Um, I'd love to be in
10:37
Speaker 1: the place where I can kill midday October buck. That
10:39
Speaker 1: sounds like a nice spot. It was. It was a
10:42
Speaker 1: fun article from Tony and uh brought us some things
10:45
Speaker 1: that you maybe would to consider, especially if you're a
10:47
Speaker 1: traveling bell hunter. If if you live in Pennsylvania headed
10:51
Speaker 1: down to Ohio to haunt this weekend, or if you
10:53
Speaker 1: live in Alabama and you're going up to Nebraska to hunts. Uh,
10:56
Speaker 1: those are the scenarios where Tony likes to take a
10:59
Speaker 1: swing and do some midday hunting and maybe kill a
11:01
Speaker 1: buck at ten thirty am, when most hunters are back
11:06
Speaker 1: in their tent sleeping by then. Yeah, I like it.
11:09
Speaker 1: Did you get any general themes coming out of these
11:11
Speaker 1: conversations that does anything stand out to you from these
11:14
Speaker 1: other people that that maybe it was different than what
11:16
Speaker 1: I mentioned here or similar? No, um, nothing, nothing big.
11:22
Speaker 1: I would say this is predictable, but it's something that's
11:26
Speaker 1: a theme maybe among all of the hunters that we
11:28
Speaker 1: talked to that at this point the focus of their
11:32
Speaker 1: trail cameras has gone to signmaking, specifically scrapes, and I
11:35
Speaker 1: would imagine Mark that your trail cameras have been there
11:38
Speaker 1: by now or are going to to make that shift
11:41
Speaker 1: very soon. Is that right? Yeah, you're spot on. I
11:44
Speaker 1: have I have some on scrapes already that I set
11:47
Speaker 1: in late summer, just kind of putting them there ahead
11:49
Speaker 1: of time, knowing that by the time we got to
11:51
Speaker 1: this period that's where I wanted to be, and I
11:54
Speaker 1: actually am considering today since since I wasn't planning hunting
11:58
Speaker 1: this week around my local places since I'm gone the
12:00
Speaker 1: following week, I was thinking today I might slip in
12:03
Speaker 1: and make that final move, move those cameras to the
12:06
Speaker 1: spots I really want them to be for mid to
12:08
Speaker 1: late October and in early November and uh and also
12:11
Speaker 1: get a little bit of intel because I have not
12:13
Speaker 1: gone to check any trail cameras since uh since September,
12:17
Speaker 1: I guess since the beginning September. So I think it
12:21
Speaker 1: might be a good idea to do that since I've
12:23
Speaker 1: got a good two week window probably where I'm not
12:26
Speaker 1: you know, depending on activity. Unless unless I change my
12:29
Speaker 1: mind with this front, there there's a chance I might
12:31
Speaker 1: do that. And if that's the case, then maybe I
12:33
Speaker 1: won't do the camera thing. So it's a little bit
12:35
Speaker 1: up there. But yes, scrapes are where you want those
12:37
Speaker 1: cameras right now, especially if you can get a scrape
12:39
Speaker 1: that's back in the cover. Um, if there's a way
12:42
Speaker 1: you can do that without blowing the area up, that's
12:45
Speaker 1: that's always a high odds location, whether it be just
12:49
Speaker 1: for getting inventory or actually hunting this time of year.
12:52
Speaker 1: I mean, if if I'm hunting mid October or late October,
12:56
Speaker 1: a good heavy community scrape that's back in there close
13:00
Speaker 1: to a betting area, that's uh, that's a good spot
13:02
Speaker 1: to start. So those kinds of places will be on
13:06
Speaker 1: my mind over the next couple of weeks for sure.
13:08
Speaker 1: Al art Mark, Well, like we said earlier, I hope
13:11
Speaker 1: the weather man is wrong and we do get that
13:13
Speaker 1: cold front that we had the last two years. But
13:16
Speaker 1: in case that doesn't happen, I expect you're gonna have
13:19
Speaker 1: some good encounters anyway, because you know what these bucks
13:22
Speaker 1: are doing in mid October. Fingers crossed man, all right,
13:25
Speaker 1: I will talk to you next week. Thanks Spencer, all right,
13:30
Speaker 1: and joining us on the line. Next is Casey Smith
13:33
Speaker 1: from Element in South Dakota. Now Casey in South Dakota.
13:37
Speaker 1: What would you say the buck activity is ben Leley
13:39
Speaker 1: on a scale of one to ten. So we spent
13:42
Speaker 1: the first week of the season they guess September twenty
13:47
Speaker 1: nights through October eight in South Dakota, and I would
13:51
Speaker 1: say the buck activity is pretty high. Um, I mean
13:54
Speaker 1: saw bucks every day glassing and from saddles and on
13:59
Speaker 1: the ground as well, So I would give it a
14:02
Speaker 1: six out of ten. I would imagine as far as
14:04
Speaker 1: you know, just observation of bucks. A lot of tags
14:08
Speaker 1: in your group were filled the yours included. Were there
14:11
Speaker 1: any commonalities between the setups when those tags were filled
14:15
Speaker 1: on public land in South Dakota for you guys, Yeah, absolutely.
14:18
Speaker 1: I'd say the big commonality was just hunting deer um
14:23
Speaker 1: in relation to food sources. Um. They didn't really matter
14:26
Speaker 1: morning the evening. I would say the mornings we had
14:28
Speaker 1: better attivty because it was just we kind of were
14:31
Speaker 1: there on a hot streak as far as weather goes.
14:33
Speaker 1: You know, it was getting up into the eighties almost
14:36
Speaker 1: every day, so the evening you had just a really
14:38
Speaker 1: small window of deer movement. But in the mornings there
14:40
Speaker 1: really was quite a bit of time that you know,
14:43
Speaker 1: deer were on their feet and uh there were really
14:46
Speaker 1: relating to standing crops that were still around, like corn especially.
14:50
Speaker 1: We had the intent of going up there and hunt
14:52
Speaker 1: deer around al falfa because we've seen that pattern in
14:54
Speaker 1: the past, kind of adjusted because how much they were
14:56
Speaker 1: hitting corn um, and I think that, you know, really
15:00
Speaker 1: was the thing. We found a few scrapes, and of
15:01
Speaker 1: course there's some rubs already starting to pop up. But
15:04
Speaker 1: you know, really the tactic was to get between food
15:06
Speaker 1: and bedding. That part of the country has had a
15:09
Speaker 1: severe drought lately. Did water factory into your haunts at all, um,
15:15
Speaker 1: It's definitely something we considered, uh And one of the
15:18
Speaker 1: interesting things that I did see that I don't see
15:20
Speaker 1: in other parts of the country, at least I haven't observed.
15:22
Speaker 1: I'm sure it happens, but dear, we're relating to major
15:26
Speaker 1: water sources. You know, where we're from, the northeast Texas.
15:28
Speaker 1: A lot of times it's just little slows and ditches
15:30
Speaker 1: and things that they have around everywhere they can find water.
15:34
Speaker 1: But there it was like, you know, they wanted to
15:36
Speaker 1: be near the big bodies of water to you know,
15:39
Speaker 1: have a consistent water source, its seemed. But no direct
15:43
Speaker 1: hunting over water, but it definitely was a thing where
15:45
Speaker 1: you didn't want to go somewhere where there was no
15:48
Speaker 1: water at all. To be as successful as you guys
15:51
Speaker 1: were on that trip, you're in seasoned scouting had to
15:54
Speaker 1: be perfect. So tell me about what you were looking
15:56
Speaker 1: for when you had boots on the ground or glassing
15:58
Speaker 1: from Afar. Yeah sure, so, um, we really did our best.
16:03
Speaker 1: We went up there with a day uh to you know,
16:07
Speaker 1: spend the whole time scouting, driving around, looking for food sources,
16:10
Speaker 1: looking for cover, looking for pressure. Pressure actually kind of
16:14
Speaker 1: played a big role in this. I mean the pressure
16:15
Speaker 1: is relative, right. I mean, if you go to say
16:18
Speaker 1: one of the National forest here in Texas, there's gonna
16:20
Speaker 1: be people everywhere, and you go to a real place
16:22
Speaker 1: like South Dakota, it's not near as men people, but
16:24
Speaker 1: still the deer react to it in a relative fashion.
16:27
Speaker 1: So there were a couple other groups of hunters in
16:29
Speaker 1: the area that we were and uh, it actually rained
16:33
Speaker 1: the first day we were there. We were able to tell,
16:36
Speaker 1: you know, pretty much where people were driving recently. And
16:39
Speaker 1: we found that a lot of times the places where
16:42
Speaker 1: there were no truck tracks you know, that were fresh
16:44
Speaker 1: since the rain, that's where you know, gene activity behind
16:47
Speaker 1: those deer weren't bumped around. So that made a difference,
16:50
Speaker 1: you know. And also just finding the hot food sources
16:53
Speaker 1: like corn especially and uh also alfalfa and clover actually
16:58
Speaker 1: end up killing my dear. Funny enough, I kill my
17:00
Speaker 1: dear over a natural food source. It was the sumac
17:05
Speaker 1: bushes around. There's what they were really feeding on on
17:07
Speaker 1: their way too, you know, evening feed at the eggs field.
17:11
Speaker 1: So I set up on an area that had a
17:12
Speaker 1: bunch of sumac, and the deer got up out of
17:15
Speaker 1: his bed and just fit on that stuff and fed
17:17
Speaker 1: around until he meandered about thirty yards from me and
17:20
Speaker 1: I got to shooting. So it's pretty cool. With the
17:22
Speaker 1: consideration that you were going to be there in early
17:25
Speaker 1: to mid October, what were you looking for on aerial
17:28
Speaker 1: scouting ahead of time? Uh, crop fields, Uh, definitely paid
17:33
Speaker 1: attention to that. And then um, just habitat pockets. You know,
17:39
Speaker 1: you're being from South Dakota, of course, I'm sure you understand.
17:41
Speaker 1: But it's not like much of the eastern part of
17:44
Speaker 1: the country where habitat is just unlimited. You know. Habitat
17:48
Speaker 1: is definitely the limited um factor when it comes to
17:51
Speaker 1: places where white tail, especially lives. So if you can
17:55
Speaker 1: find a place that has, you know, a decent amount
17:57
Speaker 1: of cover, especially with the hots Greek in the drought,
18:01
Speaker 1: you know, possibly and we were even thinking about the
18:03
Speaker 1: north facing stuff, kind of like what you think about
18:04
Speaker 1: with elk. Find you some good north facing slopes that
18:07
Speaker 1: have decent cover, uh you know, on the aerial and
18:11
Speaker 1: you can definitely at least have an idea of where
18:13
Speaker 1: a deer might be spending their daytime of hours. How
18:16
Speaker 1: did morning movement vary from evening movement based on what
18:19
Speaker 1: you guys saw during the trip, I think definitely, um
18:24
Speaker 1: more movement was more extended because that was the cool
18:28
Speaker 1: part of the day. You know. Um, the way these
18:32
Speaker 1: early October days go in the uh kind of the
18:35
Speaker 1: Great Plain States is you end up with kind of
18:38
Speaker 1: some summer temperatures almost in the afternoon, but you still
18:40
Speaker 1: have cold nights. So in those linger into the mornings
18:44
Speaker 1: where you know you might have dear movement up you know,
18:47
Speaker 1: eight thirty or nine am. I think, um, so I
18:51
Speaker 1: sat on day six and saw him a cheer buck
18:54
Speaker 1: go back to bed on one of those north facing
18:56
Speaker 1: slopes at nine fourteen, and then you contract set to
19:00
Speaker 1: the buck. I shot. You know, he was moving. He
19:02
Speaker 1: actually moved earlier than most here in the evening, but
19:05
Speaker 1: he's still you know. I shot him at um six fifteen,
19:09
Speaker 1: which is that hour and a half before the end
19:11
Speaker 1: of a legal shooting lot, and most of the time
19:13
Speaker 1: we were seeing deer after the sun went down in
19:15
Speaker 1: the evenings. So you know, if you wanted an opportunity
19:19
Speaker 1: to catch deer on their feet and um not have
19:22
Speaker 1: to be so close into you know, betting stuff where
19:25
Speaker 1: you can bump them, the morning was the time to be,
19:29
Speaker 1: you know, sitting it out and and waiting on you
19:32
Speaker 1: to come by. Going forward, then this next week or so,
19:35
Speaker 1: what do you think that bucket ATVT is going to
19:36
Speaker 1: be on a scale of one to ten in South Dakota,
19:40
Speaker 1: It's gonna be relevant to weather. I haven't looked at
19:42
Speaker 1: the weather outlook, of course, but uh, you know, if
19:45
Speaker 1: it continues with those hot temperatures and there's it's probably
19:48
Speaker 1: gonna stay pretty close to the same. You know. Um,
19:53
Speaker 1: if they got you know, some weather pushed through and
19:55
Speaker 1: drop those teens ten and fifteen degrees compared to the
19:58
Speaker 1: recent averages, I bet you. And see you know, kind
20:00
Speaker 1: of an influx of movement, especially towards scrapes and stuff
20:04
Speaker 1: that's October pushes on. I do know this. While we
20:06
Speaker 1: were up there, I saw uh, good size books fighting
20:10
Speaker 1: you know and sparring and kind of going through that
20:14
Speaker 1: um time period where they're starting to split up and
20:17
Speaker 1: who used to be my friend is now my enemy
20:19
Speaker 1: kind of thing. You know, we were still seeing bucks
20:20
Speaker 1: in bachelor groups, but they were sparring and not just
20:23
Speaker 1: friendly sparring either. So I would imagine that you'll probably
20:27
Speaker 1: have some dispersion of deer, you know, kind of deer
20:29
Speaker 1: kind of moving into their fall ranges, and uh, that
20:32
Speaker 1: could spell some good things for guys who maybe haven't
20:34
Speaker 1: been seeing quite as many books yet. All right, Casey,
20:37
Speaker 1: congrats you and Tyler and everyone else in deer camp.
20:40
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining me in. Good luck with the rest
20:42
Speaker 1: of your season. Awesome, Spencer, thanks man, all right and
20:45
Speaker 1: joining us on the line. Next is John Teeter in
20:47
Speaker 1: New York from Whitetail Landscapes. Now, John in New York,
20:50
Speaker 1: what would you say the buck activity has been lately
20:53
Speaker 1: on a scale of one to ten. Let's see this
20:56
Speaker 1: past week, Spenser, we've seen, uh, definitely an increase in activity. Um,
21:00
Speaker 1: I think that's gonna decline, but currently I would say
21:03
Speaker 1: it's probably in the six range. Now, you just killed
21:07
Speaker 1: a slammer buck earlier this month in New York. Tell
21:10
Speaker 1: us about that set up, why you were in that spot,
21:12
Speaker 1: and why that buck was in that spot. Yeah, you know,
21:16
Speaker 1: a green food source isolated, Um, the kind of a
21:20
Speaker 1: major draw, A lot of variability in that food source,
21:23
Speaker 1: kind of pulled that deer in. Hunted that deer in
21:26
Speaker 1: a rainy, stormy day. Um, and and he had a
21:29
Speaker 1: lot of patterns of interest in that food source. On
21:34
Speaker 1: those conditions, I'm going to say the food source really
21:36
Speaker 1: was kind of a major draw there. Um. So I
21:39
Speaker 1: would say for everyone early season, focus on those food
21:41
Speaker 1: sources that that that helps get get you know, attracts
21:45
Speaker 1: there and pulls them right into a kind of a
21:47
Speaker 1: kill spot. John as a property consultant, what are some
21:51
Speaker 1: things that land managers can do to a property to
21:54
Speaker 1: make them hunt better for the month of October. Yeah,
21:58
Speaker 1: you know, there's a lot of options for individual landowners
22:01
Speaker 1: if you have the ability to manipulate. You know, for
22:04
Speaker 1: that particular deer that I had mentioned earlier, I had
22:06
Speaker 1: went in and manipulated a betting area of specifically to
22:09
Speaker 1: kill that deer. Um. What I did was I cut
22:12
Speaker 1: a lot of timber in there in August, instant food
22:16
Speaker 1: source and drawing him across basically from other properties, um
22:20
Speaker 1: to make him more resident. That that would be a
22:23
Speaker 1: good option. Focusing on native food sources. That's another, uh,
22:28
Speaker 1: great example. When you cut timber, you're gonna get a
22:31
Speaker 1: lot of native browse, So focusing on the native browse
22:34
Speaker 1: and then really cultivating those areas. But you can put
22:36
Speaker 1: planet food embedding areas. Um. You know, don't forget to
22:39
Speaker 1: add you know, a grain. Uh. A good example in
22:42
Speaker 1: the northern climates is winter rye planning, you know, just
22:46
Speaker 1: before right around September. That can be an excellent draw,
22:50
Speaker 1: particularly if you have enough available so light in those
22:52
Speaker 1: those timbered areas. You mentioned native food sources. What are
22:56
Speaker 1: some natural food sources that guys should be looking to
22:59
Speaker 1: right now in the want of October in the northeast.
23:03
Speaker 1: You know, it's all over the place. When I was
23:05
Speaker 1: set up on that hunt that I was telling about earlier,
23:09
Speaker 1: you know, I have a lot of native brows in
23:11
Speaker 1: that area, a lot of for food sources. But it
23:14
Speaker 1: was interesting I actually saw a deer eating wild grape um,
23:17
Speaker 1: not the grape leaves themselves, the actual grapes um. So
23:20
Speaker 1: that that was kind of an interesting Any any fruit,
23:23
Speaker 1: any available fruit that includes blackberries, anything that's available at
23:26
Speaker 1: that time, um would would be as a source of interest. UM.
23:30
Speaker 1: So soft masses is a real big focus at time
23:33
Speaker 1: time of year, especially early season. And is there anything
23:36
Speaker 1: you like to do to a property to make it
23:38
Speaker 1: easier for deer to communicate through scrapes and drubs or
23:41
Speaker 1: is that not something you really consider when you're making
23:43
Speaker 1: land changes. Absolutely, UM, trying to create social hubs for
23:48
Speaker 1: these deer, just to create a level attraction for for
23:51
Speaker 1: them to kind of congregate. They're always in there's always
23:53
Speaker 1: a packing order and their social cues that that I
23:56
Speaker 1: kind of that I kind of focus in on. UM.
23:58
Speaker 1: I think the idea of introduced seeing uh, scrape trees
24:01
Speaker 1: or scrape sticks, something along those lines in either remote
24:05
Speaker 1: areas or in transition areas. UM. It's all about data collections.
24:08
Speaker 1: So watching those deer and the frequency of them, you know,
24:11
Speaker 1: approaching those areas and trying to get data of when
24:13
Speaker 1: and when and when not they move in those areas
24:16
Speaker 1: is pretty much critical. So I think social aspect, right now,
24:19
Speaker 1: you're gonna start to see, uh, you know this this
24:22
Speaker 1: co mingling of deer right now, You're you're noticing bucks
24:25
Speaker 1: and does very segregated. You're also noticing the mature deer
24:29
Speaker 1: are starting to split up. Sometimes they co mingle and
24:32
Speaker 1: you'll start to see a lot of segregation over the
24:34
Speaker 1: next next couple of weeks. Where are you running a
24:36
Speaker 1: lot of your trail cameras right now? Uh? You know,
24:40
Speaker 1: I I run them in various locations. UM, you know,
24:45
Speaker 1: I I have a tendency to have you know, I
24:48
Speaker 1: guess perennial scrapes that that I focus on all season long. Um.
24:52
Speaker 1: But a lot of it's just transitional movement, uh, you know,
24:55
Speaker 1: basically taking these areas of deer like to bet in. Uh.
24:58
Speaker 1: And I'm usually folk you see a wind based betting,
25:01
Speaker 1: but kind of sourcing them down or necking them down
25:04
Speaker 1: and in those locations and transition to either a food
25:06
Speaker 1: source or another betting area. That's where I'm getting my
25:09
Speaker 1: data going forward. Then, in this next week or so,
25:12
Speaker 1: what do you think that buck activty is going to
25:14
Speaker 1: be on a scale of one to ten in New York?
25:18
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna drop down to a four. We've
25:21
Speaker 1: got some warm tompsterures coming in. The deer's ability to
25:25
Speaker 1: thermal regulate, they've got winter coats at this point is
25:28
Speaker 1: uh is difficult. So I would recommend that individuals that
25:32
Speaker 1: are going after a deer think about that their ability
25:35
Speaker 1: to dissipate heat. They're going to be in low cool
25:37
Speaker 1: areas or high iris areas that have good canopy. Those
25:40
Speaker 1: are going to be the focus spots. I would say
25:42
Speaker 1: it's kind of probably dropped down to a four. All right, John,
25:45
Speaker 1: great information, great buck and thanks for joining me alright,
25:49
Speaker 1: Thanks Spencer, appreciate it alright and joining us on the line.
25:52
Speaker 1: Next is Parker McDonald from Southern Ground Hunting in Alabama. Now,
25:56
Speaker 1: Parker in Alabama, what would you say the buck activity
25:59
Speaker 1: has been ley on a scale of one to ten,
26:01
Speaker 1: and I'd probably say it would be as low as
26:05
Speaker 1: I've ever seen it, uh maybe a two, uh, pretty
26:09
Speaker 1: close to that. It's it's been pretty tough man. And
26:12
Speaker 1: what would you attribute that too? Too? So in our
26:18
Speaker 1: early opener, there's only a few places in the in
26:22
Speaker 1: the state of Alabama right now that are that's even open,
26:26
Speaker 1: and it's been hot, so I think that the heat
26:29
Speaker 1: has a lot to do with it. Um bucks are
26:33
Speaker 1: getting to their beds as early is I mean it's
26:38
Speaker 1: dark like for example, this morning, I actually had one
26:42
Speaker 1: of the few encounters that I've had, uh since our
26:45
Speaker 1: opener on October one, I've had one of the few
26:47
Speaker 1: encounters with a buck that I've had, and um, I
26:52
Speaker 1: just I should have killed him probably, but he he
26:55
Speaker 1: came in behind me and ended up winning me. But
26:58
Speaker 1: that all happened, I mean like like right at legal
27:03
Speaker 1: shooting light, I mean right at the beginning of shooting light,
27:07
Speaker 1: and he was headed right back to his bed on
27:10
Speaker 1: a point um. And I think that that's kind of
27:14
Speaker 1: been what everybody has experienced right now. We have so
27:18
Speaker 1: many acrons on the ground um In in years past,
27:22
Speaker 1: you know, I mean you have some years that the
27:24
Speaker 1: acron crop is huge, some years that it's not. And
27:27
Speaker 1: in the big woods, it's in the mountains. I have
27:31
Speaker 1: found that when you have a year that the acron
27:34
Speaker 1: crop is not good, it typically can up your deer
27:39
Speaker 1: sightings a lot more because you can find those few areas.
27:43
Speaker 1: And right now there's just acres everywhere, and so it's
27:45
Speaker 1: hard to start to pinpoint where deer are gonna be. Um.
27:50
Speaker 1: But you know, I mean I think most bucks have
27:53
Speaker 1: been just they just stay laid up all day. Now.
27:57
Speaker 1: I do know a few people who have had trail
28:01
Speaker 1: cameras out this last uh this last week, and they
28:05
Speaker 1: have noticed bucks getting up mid day and going and
28:10
Speaker 1: feeding on you know, the closest acorns that they have
28:13
Speaker 1: close to their betting areas where where their cameras are
28:15
Speaker 1: set up and stuff. And uh, I think that has
28:19
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not like a big, huge believer in
28:22
Speaker 1: all the moon faced stuff, but I have seen some
28:25
Speaker 1: evidence that could It'd be tough to argue like, uh,
28:30
Speaker 1: like I'm seeing right now with some of my buddies
28:32
Speaker 1: who have trail cameras and they're getting these mid day
28:36
Speaker 1: buck pictures. Um. But you know, I think I think
28:40
Speaker 1: it's going to continue to be like this. Probably I
28:43
Speaker 1: typically see it starting to really ramp up around mid
28:47
Speaker 1: October till late October or rutt in Alabama is so crazy. Um.
28:52
Speaker 1: You have some parts of the state that rutt November,
28:55
Speaker 1: a few parts that rut November, a lot of places
28:58
Speaker 1: rut in December, and then a lot of the state
29:00
Speaker 1: ruts in January. And so it really just depends on
29:03
Speaker 1: what part of the state you're in, on what phase
29:07
Speaker 1: you're going to be in of the rut. You know,
29:08
Speaker 1: there there could be deer that are getting you know,
29:12
Speaker 1: into that pre rut phase right now in some parts
29:14
Speaker 1: of the state. But where I'm at there. They're definitely
29:17
Speaker 1: not even close. I know you do a lot of
29:20
Speaker 1: water access hunts. How do your water acits haunts bury
29:23
Speaker 1: in early season versus the rut or late season. So
29:27
Speaker 1: we started this, uh, the state of Alabama started this
29:32
Speaker 1: where they opened up a few counties two weeks early
29:37
Speaker 1: on October one. For years and years and years, it's
29:39
Speaker 1: been the openers for the whole state has been October fifteen.
29:43
Speaker 1: But they opened up a few counties that you can
29:45
Speaker 1: actually go in and hunt on October one, and so, um,
29:50
Speaker 1: all this time, nobody's really had the opportunity to hunt
29:55
Speaker 1: things like per simmons until these last couple of years
29:59
Speaker 1: where we actually get a chance to hunt them before
30:02
Speaker 1: they're all gone. And so I've ended up. I killed
30:05
Speaker 1: the dough last Monday, a week a week from right now,
30:09
Speaker 1: and um she was there was like ten deer. There
30:14
Speaker 1: were so many deer just piling out of the woods,
30:16
Speaker 1: coming straight into these per simmons. And what I find
30:19
Speaker 1: is a lot of that uh things. There's different types
30:24
Speaker 1: of uh grasses that grow close to the water. Um,
30:29
Speaker 1: and then then things like per simmons that I always
30:32
Speaker 1: find right on the edge of the water and so
30:36
Speaker 1: for this early season, man, most of the time, if
30:39
Speaker 1: I'm just going out to try to see deer numbers,
30:42
Speaker 1: I'm gonna just go and hunt somewhere close to the
30:45
Speaker 1: edge of the water. I mean, the deer I shot
30:47
Speaker 1: the other day literally died fifty yards away from my boat.
30:51
Speaker 1: And so, um, once we get further on into the
30:55
Speaker 1: season and uh bucks start getting on their feet a
30:58
Speaker 1: little bit, I'll kind of move out or I guess
31:01
Speaker 1: I guess moved deeper into the woods than I am
31:04
Speaker 1: right now. But for the most part, right now, for
31:06
Speaker 1: this early season, man, I'm I'm sticking really close to
31:08
Speaker 1: the edge of the water because it seems to be
31:10
Speaker 1: where the deer want to be at. When you're doing
31:12
Speaker 1: some in season scouting in mid October and Alabama, what
31:16
Speaker 1: are some things that you're looking for. I am looking
31:19
Speaker 1: for like disturbances on the ground. So it's big woods
31:24
Speaker 1: style hunting that I'm doing. And so there's not like
31:27
Speaker 1: food plots or you know, crop fields or anything like that.
31:32
Speaker 1: It's all woods, and I am trying to put my
31:38
Speaker 1: boots on the ground as much as I can. Like
31:39
Speaker 1: I started this new thing, it's called new Spot Monday,
31:43
Speaker 1: and I just try to On Monday's I try to
31:46
Speaker 1: go to a new spot and break that spot down
31:48
Speaker 1: throughout the rest of the week. If I find something good,
31:50
Speaker 1: if I find If I don't find anything good, then
31:53
Speaker 1: I'll go back to some of the old faithful spots.
31:55
Speaker 1: But I've really tried to challenge myself two at the
31:58
Speaker 1: beginning of every week go in to a new area
32:01
Speaker 1: and really look forward to a lot of this in
32:03
Speaker 1: seasoned scouting stuff. And you know, on years like this
32:07
Speaker 1: year where we have so many acres on the ground,
32:10
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to find those areas that uh, you know,
32:14
Speaker 1: vegetation transition lines meets a good terrain feature meets a
32:20
Speaker 1: hot feed tree. If I can find those type of things,
32:23
Speaker 1: then it may not produce anything right now, but it's
32:26
Speaker 1: gonna give me a lot of UM intel that I
32:31
Speaker 1: can use here in the next couple of weeks whenever
32:33
Speaker 1: the buck activity does actually start to pick up. And
32:37
Speaker 1: so that's what I'm looking for, man, I'm looking for
32:40
Speaker 1: tracks on the beach close to where I put my
32:42
Speaker 1: kayak at to make sure that there's deer that are
32:45
Speaker 1: in the area. I've found that if you're using water
32:47
Speaker 1: access UM, you can get a good idea of the
32:52
Speaker 1: density of deer in an area by the tracks that
32:54
Speaker 1: are in that mud next to the beach. That doesn't
32:56
Speaker 1: mean there's gonna be daylight movement there. It's usually not.
32:59
Speaker 1: It's usually nighttime movement that's right there in the open
33:01
Speaker 1: areas along the water. But it gives you an idea
33:04
Speaker 1: that there's a good amount of deer in there. And
33:06
Speaker 1: so then what I do is I kind of push in.
33:08
Speaker 1: If I find what I'm looking for on that beach,
33:10
Speaker 1: I push in and try to find those hot feed
33:12
Speaker 1: trees that are producing right now. Going forward, Then in
33:17
Speaker 1: this next week or so, what do you think that
33:18
Speaker 1: bucket TV is going to be on a scale of
33:20
Speaker 1: one to ten in Alabama? Well, you know, we have
33:26
Speaker 1: a lot of hunters here right now, and it's putting
33:31
Speaker 1: a good amount of pressure. It really is putting a
33:33
Speaker 1: good amount of pressure on the deer um spencer we've got.
33:36
Speaker 1: I just looked up the harvest records for the state
33:41
Speaker 1: of Alabama right now, which, like I said, it's only
33:44
Speaker 1: three counties, but there's only been a hundred and forty
33:47
Speaker 1: four deer reported um. Forty one of those have been bucks,
33:53
Speaker 1: A hundred and three of those have been does. But here,
33:56
Speaker 1: out of that number, fifty fifty of those deer were
34:01
Speaker 1: does on public land and only nine bucks on public land. Um.
34:06
Speaker 1: And that's been you know, a week and a half
34:09
Speaker 1: worth of of hunting with tons of hunters in the woods,
34:13
Speaker 1: and so the buck activity obviously has been very very low.
34:16
Speaker 1: And they don't give you any idea of what you know,
34:19
Speaker 1: age class those bucks were anything like that. Um. But
34:23
Speaker 1: the thing that I know is here, in a couple
34:25
Speaker 1: of weeks, UM, a lot of that pressure is going
34:30
Speaker 1: to start, at least where I'm at, a lot of
34:33
Speaker 1: that pressure is gonna start to die down, and people
34:36
Speaker 1: are going to go back to you know, they've really
34:39
Speaker 1: been pushing it hard and grinding it hard and putting
34:41
Speaker 1: pressure on these areas. People have been using vacation days
34:44
Speaker 1: for the openers, and uh, once that pressure starts to
34:48
Speaker 1: subside a little bit, I think you're gonna start seeing
34:51
Speaker 1: bucks being more comfortable moving around. And we've also got
34:54
Speaker 1: next week, we've got a cold front coming through, and
34:58
Speaker 1: a southern cold front probably looks a whole lot more
35:00
Speaker 1: like a northern uh summer, but we've got like loads
35:05
Speaker 1: that are gonna be in the lower uh mid forties
35:10
Speaker 1: and highs like in in the seventies, which is UH
35:14
Speaker 1: sixties and seventies, which is pretty cool for what we
35:17
Speaker 1: typically get. And so I think over this next week,
35:20
Speaker 1: when we have that cold front, you're gonna start seeing
35:22
Speaker 1: a lot of bucks hitting the ground, a lot more
35:24
Speaker 1: bucks hitting the ground. Um. But like I said, Man,
35:27
Speaker 1: I mean, it really depends on where you're at in
35:29
Speaker 1: the state. Where I'm at. I think over the next
35:33
Speaker 1: couple of weeks, it's going to be a lot more. Um,
35:38
Speaker 1: You're gonna see bucks getting out of that core area
35:41
Speaker 1: just a little bit more. Not a lot more, but
35:44
Speaker 1: a little bit more. I think. I think that's gonna
35:46
Speaker 1: be whenever it starts to really get good. Um. And
35:49
Speaker 1: then we've got a couple of weeks from there until
35:52
Speaker 1: we start getting the pre rut. Usually mid November is
35:56
Speaker 1: when the pre rut starts where I hunt, and then
35:58
Speaker 1: the rut in early December, and so it's just kind
36:01
Speaker 1: of a natural gradual progression from from that first cold front.
36:06
Speaker 1: But I think it's gonna be really good. All right, Parker,
36:08
Speaker 1: thanks for the great intel and good luck with the
36:10
Speaker 1: rest of your season. All right, Spencer, appreciating man joining
36:14
Speaker 1: us on the line next is Todd Graff from bow
36:16
Speaker 1: hunting dot Com in Illinois. Now Todd in Illinois, what
36:19
Speaker 1: would you say the bucket activity has been lately on
36:21
Speaker 1: a scale of one to ten, you know, for this season,
36:24
Speaker 1: I'd have to go with the three for getting started.
36:26
Speaker 1: You know, for the most part, Spencer, what I've been
36:29
Speaker 1: seeing and what I've been hearing from the immediate group
36:32
Speaker 1: of people that I talked to, is this this general
36:35
Speaker 1: very high hot temperatures we're having in this drop that
36:38
Speaker 1: we're in seems to really have had this dear movement
36:42
Speaker 1: definitely uh, less less than desirable for sure. Um, That's
36:47
Speaker 1: basically what I've been hearing and what I've been seeing
36:49
Speaker 1: so far. The season has been open for a few
36:52
Speaker 1: weeks at this point in Illinois. Had there been any
36:54
Speaker 1: specific days or weekends that have stuck out to you
36:57
Speaker 1: so far? Well, I mean, you know, it's funny because
37:00
Speaker 1: the other day I went out and pulled the camera
37:03
Speaker 1: and I love running that video mode right And prior
37:07
Speaker 1: to pulling the camera, I've had some conversations with some
37:10
Speaker 1: different people that I was shocked with the with the
37:12
Speaker 1: size of the bucks that they killed. I mean, literally,
37:14
Speaker 1: these four individuals that I talked to all had bucks
37:18
Speaker 1: that were there that I would have shot for sure.
37:22
Speaker 1: And there was something magical about October the sixth. And
37:26
Speaker 1: you know, I pulled this camera car I was going
37:28
Speaker 1: through it, and here I see these dough just running
37:30
Speaker 1: all over the field, and I see this one shooter
37:32
Speaker 1: buck that would love to get a chance at and
37:34
Speaker 1: he was grunting full tilt. Now, I can't say I
37:37
Speaker 1: was paying attention to the weather forecast specifically on that
37:39
Speaker 1: day or what it was about that day, but I'll
37:42
Speaker 1: tell you what, Uh, clearly some people capitalize I had
37:47
Speaker 1: on that day specifically, and I was not one of them.
37:51
Speaker 1: When we're encountering a stretch of warm weather like we
37:54
Speaker 1: have been in the Midwest, what are you doing differently
37:56
Speaker 1: when you're hunting in October in a state like Illinois. Well,
38:00
Speaker 1: I love my water holes, and but I'll tell you,
38:04
Speaker 1: I think besides water holes, because we finally started getting
38:08
Speaker 1: rain here within the first week here in Illinois, so
38:11
Speaker 1: it kind of kind of destroyed the water strategy a
38:14
Speaker 1: little bit. But you know, sticking with the green fields,
38:16
Speaker 1: I mean, some of the hunts that I've been on
38:18
Speaker 1: this year, we've been focusing on some of the winter
38:20
Speaker 1: wheat and ride that's been coming up and some of
38:22
Speaker 1: the turn ups, just some of the green patches. Another
38:26
Speaker 1: little you know thing that's been happening here in Illinois.
38:28
Speaker 1: The harvest has been so early that some of these
38:31
Speaker 1: farmers that have already picked the beans, you're seeing re
38:34
Speaker 1: sprouts already coming off the bean pods. And Uh, I'm
38:39
Speaker 1: getting a lot of deer activity hitting those little fresh
38:43
Speaker 1: green pods that are just coming up right now. So
38:47
Speaker 1: I think for that first week you know that the
38:49
Speaker 1: key has been sticking with green. I was lucky enough
38:51
Speaker 1: the harvest the dough here a few days ago. Uh,
38:54
Speaker 1: A couple of my other friend shot does two and
38:57
Speaker 1: all those those were harvested over They basically deer heading
39:01
Speaker 1: to green plots or in green plots. What are you
39:03
Speaker 1: seeing for signmaking right now? Most of the bucks that
39:08
Speaker 1: most of the trail cameras that I have set up
39:10
Speaker 1: on scrapes, Almost all the bucks have been hitting those
39:14
Speaker 1: after hours in the night. I'm just literally seeing the
39:19
Speaker 1: scrapes starting to be opened up. Not anything of getting
39:23
Speaker 1: completely excited over, that's for sure. You mentioned that you
39:26
Speaker 1: have some cams on you mentioned that you have some
39:30
Speaker 1: trail cameras on scrapes. Right now, where are you running
39:32
Speaker 1: a lot of your other trail cameras As we get
39:34
Speaker 1: into mid October, you know, I'm starting to shift some
39:37
Speaker 1: of those cameras because that's a big thing I think
39:39
Speaker 1: people don't think about, but you know, shifting those cameras
39:41
Speaker 1: is super important, right you know, now is when I
39:44
Speaker 1: like start moving those cameras to some of the pinch points,
39:46
Speaker 1: some of those areas that I know that I'm hoping
39:49
Speaker 1: that those bucks are going to start traveling through, So
39:51
Speaker 1: some of those travel corridors, pinch points. Um, that's where
39:54
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be shipping those cameras too. But definitely we'll
39:57
Speaker 1: always be leaving cameras on scrap I mean, it's just
40:00
Speaker 1: a great way to get inventory who's who's in the
40:03
Speaker 1: neighborhood at that specific time. So I really do the
40:07
Speaker 1: usually don't move those off of the scrapes. Historically, when
40:10
Speaker 1: do you like to start doing some calling in Illinois? Oh,
40:16
Speaker 1: that's a good question. Um, you know a lot of
40:19
Speaker 1: times I'll let the deer kind of decide that for me.
40:24
Speaker 1: You know, you're watching the deer's behavior generally will dictate
40:27
Speaker 1: some of the moves that I make. Um, you know,
40:30
Speaker 1: there's no way in heck I'm going to start, you know,
40:32
Speaker 1: pulling out snort wess and getting real aggressive here this early.
40:36
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna let the deer kind of tell me
40:38
Speaker 1: and watch what the deer doing. One You'll start seeing
40:41
Speaker 1: some of those one and a half year old bucks
40:43
Speaker 1: start doing some little grunts here and there, and then
40:45
Speaker 1: as I begin to see that pick up, that's when
40:46
Speaker 1: I'll start getting more aggressive with calling going forward. Then
40:50
Speaker 1: in this next week or so, what do you think
40:52
Speaker 1: that buck activ is going to be on a scale
40:54
Speaker 1: of one to ten in Illinois. Well, in this particular case,
40:59
Speaker 1: I'm seeing a cold front coming in for this weekend.
41:02
Speaker 1: When I say cold front, it's not like something crazy,
41:04
Speaker 1: but definitely finally a shift in the weather. So I
41:06
Speaker 1: am I am always an optimistic guy, So I'm I'm
41:09
Speaker 1: going I'm going with an eight, primarily because of the
41:13
Speaker 1: fact that I think these deer have got a lot
41:15
Speaker 1: of pent up energy from the start of this current season. Alright, Todd,
41:19
Speaker 1: good luck to you and everyone else from bow hunting
41:21
Speaker 1: dot Com and bow hunter Die. Thanks for joining me,
41:23
Speaker 1: and good luck with the rest of your season, Spencer.
41:26
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for Amazon. And that concludes this week's
41:30
Speaker 1: episode of rut Fresh Radio. Thanks to Casey, John Parker,
41:34
Speaker 1: and Todd for joining me, and thank you guys for listening.
41:37
Speaker 1: As a reminder, the reading materials for this week's episode
41:40
Speaker 1: can be found in the description of the podcast. You're
41:43
Speaker 1: gonna learn things about like how to kill a buck,
41:45
Speaker 1: hunting rubs, the best food sources to deer hunt in October,
41:49
Speaker 1: how to kill a nocturnal buck, and how to kill
41:51
Speaker 1: a buck at midday in October. I hope these small
41:55
Speaker 1: cold fronts find you well and we'll talk to you
41:57
Speaker 1: next week. Until then, stay Dan.